Former Somerset drive-in a proposed solar farm

Monday

Jan 9, 2012 at 12:01 AMJan 9, 2012 at 9:05 AM

A solar panel project has been proposed for the site of the former Somerset Family Drive-In Theater off Brayton Point Road. The proposal includes 1,571 solar panels spread in four locations across the site of nearly 7 acres. It would be built on wooded land on the east side of Brayton Point Road, behind Stop & Shop, Home Depot and Horton’s Gym.

Grant Welker

A solar panel project has been proposed for the site of the former Somerset Family Drive-In Theater off Brayton Point Road.

The proposal includes 1,571 solar panels spread in four locations across the site of nearly 7 acres. It would be built on wooded land on the east side of Brayton Point Road, behind Stop & Shop, Home Depot and Horton’s Gym.

“It’s a very nice setup, it seems like,” said Joel Reed, the town’s building commissioner and zoning enforcement officer. “I don’t think you’ll see it” from Brayton Point Road.

A public hearing with the Zoning Board of Appeals will be held on the proposal on Thursday, Jan. 19, at 7 p.m. in Town Hall. It will require approval from the Planning Board and Zoning Board of Appeals.

It is being proposed by Brayton Point Realty Trust, the owner of the property at 1400 Brayton Point Road. Ronald Raposa, the trustee, couldn’t be reached for comment.

The solar panel system is one of many being proposed or soon to be built in the area, including a few in Somerset.

Munro Distributing, the company that would build the panels at the former theater site, has also been hired to build solar panels on the roof of the Somerset Highway Department garage, also on Brayton Point Road. That project includes 108 solar panels over an area of 4,000 square feet, and is projected to provide more than $3,600 in energy savings annually.

The former theater site is projected to create 361 kilowatts of energy.

Munro has also done a rooftop project at a sewage treatment facility on Cape Cod, more than 10 times larger than the highway garage plan, and others in Dartmouth, Mattapoisett and New Bedford.

In Fall River, the city’s Redevelopment Authority agreed with a company to build 38,000 solar panels on 40 acres in the Industrial Park next to the landfill to produce power the city would buy back from the company.

Westport has also sought proposals to add solar panels to 13 acres on its capped landfill off Hixbridge Road.